Melting Ice Cream Cake

A perfect fit and a huge hit for any birthday party or summer get-together! 

I know this isn't exactly a ground-breaker recipe. This cake style has been done tons of times before...but (as summer comes to a close here in the PNW) I had to make ONE MORE ‘Melting Ice Cream’ cake - with a fun confetti flair! 

For as fun and fancy as it looks, it's actually really simple to put together once the cake and frosting are made! 🙂 

Sprinkle drips are truly simple and super fun to do! (Full disclosure though - they can be a touch time-consuming. I don't recommend doing one in a hurry, lol.) But I really felt like the rainbow jimmies sprinkles on the cone, cake, and the drip just made this cake design pop! 

Recipes and instructions are below! 

FAQs - 

"Does this cake actually have any ice cream in it?" 

Cake recipe as written on this page? No. 

That said, you can make it an ice cream cake by baking two cake layers (see this post for a scaled recipe) and freezing ice cream in a third 8-inch round pan for the center layer. Chill your cake layers (or freeze them) before assembling the cake - and voila! You have a perfect cake with ice cream on the outside AND the inside! 😉 

"Any tips if I've never added a drip to a cake before?"
  • Okay first off - don't stress! I can almost guarantee it's probably easier than you think it is! 🙂 
  • First biggest most-helpful tip I can give you - measure your chocolate and heavy cream carefully and accurately. Too much/little of either may affect your drip consistency. 
  • Second biggest most-helpful tip I can give you - I really recommend trying a test drip first! Then you can adjust the consistency by warming (thinner) or cooling (thicker) the ganache. It's best to be sure about the consistency before you pour ganache over your whole cake. (Take it from someone who's had to scrape drips off cakes muttering curses to herself the whole time. Save yourself the aggravation.)  
  • Since a picture's worth a thousand words, so is a video, right? 😉 I loved this YouTube tutorial by Sugar&Sparrow when I was new to cake drips! 
"Can I prep the cake / frosting / ganache / cone ahead of time?"
  • Short answer - yes you can! With a few caveats. Details below. 😉 
  • Cake - wrap baked and cooled cake layers well in plastic wrap or freezer bags. Cake layers will keep frozen for 3-4 months. I recommend defrosting in the refrigerator. 
  • Frosting - make frosting according to instructions; transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze. Again - will keep frozen for 3-4 months. 
  • Ganache - this is where the caveats come in. I've had chocolate ganache (and sprinkles) take on a bit of a whitish look when frozen and then de-frosted. (There's a science-ey reason for this I don't have space for here, but google 'why does chocolate turn white' for more details.) 
  • "Can I freeze the cake already assembled?" 
  • If you want to prep way ahead, I'd recommend stacking + frosting the cake - but don't decorate it with the drip yet. Flash-freeze it, then wrap well in plastic wrap. Defrost in the fridge when you're ready - then decorate with ganache + cone + sprinkles. This way your decorations don't get goober-ed up by freezing + defrosting. 
  • If you want to prep the entire cake ahead of time, I'd wait to prep until a day or two ahead. You're probably going to want to store everything in the fridge so defrosting doesn't mess up your decorations. You can either wait for the drip to set and wrap the cake in plastic wrap, or try out a cake box. 

Okay! Think I've covered the FAQs - on to the recipe! You just have a little further to scroll 🙂 

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Don't forget to pin this recipe for later! 
Melting Ice Cream cake pinterest pin
Melting Ice Cream Cake

Melting Ice Cream Cake

Sarah H
There's no wrong season for ice cream, right? This recipe features a fun confetti twist on the classic melting ice cream cake design!
5 from 4 votes
Prep Time 35 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Decorating time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 55 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 16 servings
Calories 897 kcal

Equipment

Ingredients
  

Chocolate Cake layers

  • 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
  • 3 ½ cups granulated sugar
  • 1 ¾ cups cocoa powder
  • 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ cups unsalted butter (3 sticks, softened)
  • 6 large eggs (at room temperature)
  • 2 ¼ cups buttermilk
  • 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

  • 8 ounces cream cheese (one package; softened)
  • 1 cup butter (two sticks, softened)
  • 6 cups powdered sugar
  • 1-2 Tablespoons milk
  • 1 Tablespoon clear vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
  • ½ cup Rainbow jimmies sprinkles (NOT nonpareils; the color will melt and turn brown! And you can use as many or as few as you’d like; more sprinkles=more color but also a tougher smoothing time.)

Cake drip and decorations

  • 12 oz 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 12 oz 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
  • ½ cup Rainbow jimmies sprinkles (additional ½ cup; for the cone, top of the cake, and to add to the drip)
  • 1 large waffle cone (you’ll have enough ganache leftover to dip the cone and add sprinkles if you’d like, but this is optional!)
  • 1 teaspoon Crisco / vegetable shortening (this will make transferring sprinkles to your drip easy!)

Instructions
 

Chocolate Cake layers

  • Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (180C). Grease 4 8-inch cake pans (or 3 round pans + one additional pan of your choice) with baker's floured spray, or grease and line pans with parchment paper.
  • Mix together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle (or hand mixer or whisk) until well combined.
  • Add in bits of softened butter, mixing until no lumps of butter are visible and the mixture looks crumbly.
  • Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and mix until no dry ingredients are visible. Scrape down the bowl and beat for another 20 seconds.
  • Fill the three round pans evenly - I find a kitchen scale helpful for this part, and each of mine weighed out to about 550g. Pour additional batter into last pan. Bake for 30-35 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow cake layers to cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire cooling rack before removing from pans, and cool completely before frosting. Set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired.

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

  • Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with milk until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add vanilla and salt if needed and beat until well combined. Reserve ¼ cup for the cake pop 'ice cream scoop,' and stir rainbow jimmies sprinkles into your remaining frosting.

Cake drip

  • Meanwhile, make your ganache. Place chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl. Add whipping cream and microwave on half power in 30-second intervals, stirring in between until fully melted and smooth.
  • (If you'd like to decorate the waffle cone, this is a great time to dip it in the ganache and add a few sprinkles! Set upright in a short glass in the fridge to cool and set the chocolate.)

Assembly

  • Once your cakes are cool, level them (if needed). This can be done with a cake leveler or a large serrated knife and a ruler. Place a smear of frosting on your cake circle (to keep the cake from sliding while you decorate it) and center your first cake layer in the center of the circle. Spread the layer with frosting, and add your next cake layer on top. Repeat the process with your remaining cake layers.
  • Now you're ready to crumb-coat . If you're unfamiliar with crumb-coating, it's just what it sounds like - a thin layer of frosting over the entire outside of the cake to keep crumbs out of your final layer.

Decorating

  • Once your crumb coat has set (this takes about 5-10 minutes in the fridge), add your final layer of frosting and smooth. I like to use an offset spatula and bench scraper for this part – smoothing the frosting with all the sprinkles in the way takes a little more time; go slow and smooth gently! I usually hold the bench scraper at a 90 degree angle when I’m smoothing; I angled it toward me about 45 degrees to smooth this one. That helped smooth in the sprinkles without dragging them.
  • Once your cake is covered, place it into the fridge - chilling the frosting a bit will help set the chocolate ganache drips.

Cake pop 'ice cream scoop'

  • Mash cake from the 4th pan with reserved frosting to make a thick 'cake pop' mix. Shape about 1 cup of the mixture into an 'ice cream scoop' shape - you can make this as large or small as you'd like! I checked the size against my waffle cone, using a scoop size that would be only partially covered by the cone on top of the cake. Transfer to the top of the cake.

Okaaaay......ganache drip time!

  • I always recommend starting with a test drip or two - if the ganache is too thick and doesn't drip well, warm it slightly to make it a bit thinner. If it's too thin, place in the fridge in 5-minute intervals, cooling it until it's thicker.
  • Using a squeeze bottle or piping bag, drizzle ganache around the top rim of the cake, letting it run over the edge to form drips down the side of the cake. Spread ganache over the top of the cake as well. Set your cake pop ‘ice cream’ top of your cake. Drizzle the ganache over the cake pop and smooth, and then set your waffle cone upside down on top of the cake pop.
  • This part is optional but SO fun – add some more rainbow sprinkles to the top of the cake! Adding sprinkles to the drip is completely optional - it's a bit time-consuming. But when the drip is semi-set, spreading a bit of Crisco on your finger and transferring rainbow sprinkles to the drips adds a really fun bit of extra color to the cake!
  • And you're done! Enjoy!

Video

Notes

(Please note nutrition information is an estimate, and may not be exactly accurate. Counts will be lower if not all the cake mixture and / or frosting is used for decorating.) 

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice (1/16th cake + cake pop cone)Calories: 897kcalCarbohydrates: 120gProtein: 12gFat: 41g
Keyword Confetti Melting Ice Cream Cake, Melting Ice Cream Cake, Melting Ice Cream Cone cake
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Mentioned in post: Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

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14 thoughts on “Melting Ice Cream Cake

    1. Hi Shivani!
      I’m not sure I’m the best person to go to for advice on whipped creams since I usually decorate with frosting, but I’ve used Darigold heavy whipping cream before and loved it! I purchased mine at Costco. When using it for cake decorating I add some dissolved gelatin to stabilize it (following this recipe – https://www.livewellbakeoften.com/how-to-make-stabilized-whipped-cream/). That said though, I’ve only used it for accents (haven’t filled or covered an entire cake with it yet). Wish I had more info for you, but I hope this helps!

  1. There is too much whipping cream in your recipe. It ruined my cake. I pored liquid chocolat all over. It’s horrible and it was the last step. You need 1 part whipping creme, 4 parts chocolat.

    1. I’m sorry that happened! Did you make sure to find heavy whipping cream? Thinner creams will make your ganache too thin to form drips. The recipe in the post is what I used to make the cake in the photo/videos, and in my experience a higher chocolate amount makes the ganache too thick to drip. I’m sorry that was your experience, and I’m glad you found a ratio that works!

  2. 5 stars
    This came out beautifully. If the recipe came out wrong for you, reread the ingredients and directions. I followed it exactly and have received overwhelming compliments from the guests of my daughter’s birthday party guests. Thank you for being so generous to supply the recipe and helpful pictures.

  3. 5 stars
    Any suggestions on how to make it ahead of time? I want to have it completely finished, cone and everything, a few days before the event. Just in case something went wrong, I’d have time to try again. But I have no idea how to freeze it with the cone on top. But like I said, I don’t want to wait til the night before to finish the cake in case I mess up the drip/cake

    1. I have a couple of thoughts; sorry if this gets a little long-winded!

      My first thought is I’m worried if you freeze and then defrost the chocolate ganache – especially if you’ve added sprinkles – the sprinkle colors might fade some and the chocolate might take on a bit of a whitish look. I’ve had that happen to M&Ms overnight in the fridge, and to some chocolate ganache I’d frozen and then defrosted. Just a heads up! 🙂

      That said – I think prepping ahead of time is still totally do-able! I think for ganache and sprinkles I might recommend storing the cake in the fridge rather than the freezer. You can prep the cone and the cake separately and just wait to add the cone until day-of. When I’ve needed to assemble cakes ahead of time before I usually store them in an airtight cake carrier or in a cake box wrapped in cling wrap in the fridge, and that’s worked well. 🙂

      If the freezer is your only option, I’d either get the cake into an airtight container or flash-freeze and then wrap it in plastic/cling wrap once the decorations are solid – then when you’re ready remove the wrap and defrost in the fridge 24-48 hours ahead of time.

      You’re doing a great job planning ahead and I have a feeling whatever you choose is going to work out well! Let me know how it goes for you! 🙂 Have a great day!

  4. I want to make this one day ahead. Thinking of leaving cake pop covered in ganache and then just adding cone on top in the morning. My question is once assembled can it sit out at room temp for a while (hours)?

    1. Absolutely! I think your plan is great – I actually recommend letting cakes come to room temperature before serving. (That way the frosting won’t be stiff.) I wouldn’t let it get hot – the frosting could start to melt – but room temperature should be just fine. 🙂

  5. 5 stars
    This melting ice cream cake is such a fun and creative idea, I love how you’ve captured the playful essence of summer desserts. The colors and textures are amazing—perfect for any celebration! Thank you for sharing this delightful recipe; I can’t wait to try making it myself.

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